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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Valkyria Chronicles PC First Impression

Valkyria Chronicles, one of the best PS3 games is finally getting a PC release. How's the PC port? good bad? mediocre? and is the game really good?
I played Valkyria Chronicles a bit(up to Chapter 2) on the PS3 years ago and it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I like the gameplay, the artstyle and the overall feel of the game. I was quite surprised when SEGA decided to release this game on Steam as I always wanted to finish the game. Before I get into more details on the gameplay let's talk about how the game was ported.

Overall, I'd say that it's a decent port. We get to play in higher resolutions than the console version and get to experience the game in higher FPS(although some player have reported issues when playing in over 60 FPS). The controls are fine although we don't get mouse controls in menus and the mouse sensitivity is a bit weird. These are minor problems though as the game is turn-based and it works fine even with these problems. Still, I do hope they fix some of these problems and some problems with random crashing that a few people have been experiencing(be sure to save often, at least before and after every mission).

Now with that out of the way, let's talk about the game. One of the first thing you'll notice at the start of the game is the menu. I like that they make the chapter selection look like a book documenting events of the game. While navigating the menu isn't really that efficient it does its job pretty well and I do believe sacrificing a bit of functionality to get a unique looking menu is acceptable.

The actual gameplay of the game is really fun with an interesting turn-based combat system that really reminded me of some miniature game I used to play. Other games that have similar mechanics? hmm, I'd say Worms fits the bill quite nicely in that it also have turn-based combat where the player can freely move the character on that character's turn. Although of course it does have some difference in that the player can activate the same character over and over again, but with less and less movement each time.

The characters in the game are all unique and will make the player think about who to bring on each mission. Every character have their own likes and dislikes that will affect their battle performance. They even have their friend list that will also affect their performance in combat when they are fighting nearby their friends. These unique traits gives the characters much more personality and make the player feel more attached. This makes the player feel even more loss when any of them died in battle. And yes, death is permanent in this game so if you are too late to save certain characters you will never see that character again.

So far in my first few hours playing the game everything just plays great. Controls could be better but overall are fine, graphics looks good because they used cell shading instead of trying to look realistic and the gameplay is just really fun. If you're still on the fence about buying this game? I say just buy and play it. It is well worth the price SEGA is asking.